The votes have been counted and the results are in.
Last week, we asked you to submit your votes for the best event in the history of the World Rally Championship. Thousands of votes later, we’ve compiled the final ranking of the top 40 rallies to have ever graced a WRC calendar – as voted by you.
Over the course of this week we’ll be revealing that ranking, so make sure you check the website every day to see where your favorite rally placed in the final results!
Here are the events that ranked 40-31:
40. Canada
Bringing up the rear in this ranking is Canada.
The world’s second largest country hosted the WRC four times in the 1970s, starting with 1974’s Rally of the Rideau Lakes in Ontario.
While that event was destined to be a one-off, the WRC would soon return to Canadian gravel, only this time to Quebec from 1977-79.
Björn Waldegård won the 1979 edition of the Critérium du Québec, the final WRC round to be held on Canadian soil to date.
=37. Morocco
Although better known today for rally-raid events, Morocco also hosted three WRC rounds during the series’ formative years.
The original Rallye du Maroc consisted of marathon stages on both asphalt and gravel surfaces, and appeared on the inaugural series calendar in 1973, and then again from 1975-76.
Bernard Darniche was victorious in Morocco’s first WRC round, while the following wins were shared between Hannu Mikkola and Jean-Pierre Nicolas, both driving for Peugeot.
=37. Ivory Coast
We remain in Africa for the next rally on our ranking but venture south to the Ivory Coast, which accumulated an equal number of votes to Morocco.
Unlike Morocco however, the Ivory Coast Rally has had a rich history in the WRC, hosting a world championship round 15 times from 1978-92.
A grueling, Safari-esque endurance effort, the event rarely counted towards the manufacturers’ championship, which often meant a lack of factory crews made the long journey down to sub-Saharan Africa.
That in turn led to some unusual cars getting their shot at glory, such as a Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC in the hands of Hannu Mikkola in 1979, and Kenneth Eriksson’s front-wheel-drive Volkswagen Golf II GTi 16V in 1987.
=37. Bulgaria
Also tying for 37th place on our list is Rally Bulgaria.
In its sole WRC appearance in 2010, Bulgaria offered drivers 220 miles of asphalt tests through the countryside to the south-east of the capital city of Sofia.
And as happened so frequently on asphalt in that era, Sébastien Loeb took the victory, while Citroën and its C4 WRC secured a historic 1-2-3-4 result, with Dani Sordo, Petter Solberg and Sébastien Ogier following Loeb home.
=35. Jordan
The Jordan Rally is next up in our ranking, which hosted the WRC three times between 2008 and 2011.
As the championship’s only venture to the Middle East, the rally delivered rough roads with a backdrop of the desert and the Dead Sea, adding something different and unique to the calendar.
Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen and Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb won the first two editions of the Jordan Rally, but the event is best known for delivering the closest finish in WRC history in 2011, with Sébastien Ogier overhauling Jari-Matti Latvala on the powerstage to take the win by just 0.2 seconds.
=35. China
Level pegging on votes with Jordan is China.
Surprisingly, the WRC has only visited the world’s most populous country and largest car market once, with the China Rally earning a promotion from the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship to the world championship for 1999.
In that edition, slippery stages caused chaos and Toyota’s Didier Auriol survived to claim his only victory of the season.
The event was slated to return to the world stage for 2016, but the weather again wrecked havoc and caused the rally to be canceled due to flood damage.
=33. Austria
The Austrian stages of 2023’s Central European Rally were the country’s first to feature in the WRC since the very first world championship season in 1973.
50 years ago, the Austrian Alpine Rally took place on gravel stages in the east of the country around Vienna, with Achim Warmbold and Jean Todt taking victory in the beautiful BMW 2002 Tii .
The event marked the first victory in the WRC for the Bavarian brand, but the win wasn’t confirmed until 1974 due to a series of organizational blunders, which had initially resulted in Warmbold’s disqualification.
=33. Brazil
Equally popular with voters as Austria was Brazil.
Although not famed for its rallying history, Brazil made two appearances in the WRC from 1981-82, following Argentina’s lead and becoming the second South American country to host a world championship round.
Both São Paulo-based gravel events were car-breakers, with the 1982 edition having just five of the 55 starters make it to the final time control.
Ari Vatanen’s Ford Escort (1981) and Audi’s Michèle Mouton (1982) dealt best with the rough conditions to score victories in Brazil’s only world championship rallies to date.
32. France-Alsace
Next in the ranking is the Alsace-based Rally France, which hosted the WRC annually from 2010-14.
Based in the town of Haguenau – essentially Sébastien Loeb’s backyard – the fast, flowing stages delivered plenty of history during their brief spell in the championship.
Loeb secured the title on home soil in 2010 and 2012, before famously rolling out of his supposed last-ever WRC rally in 2013, after his former Citroën team-mate Sébastien Ogier had already secured his first title on the event’s opening powerstage.
Volkswagen’s Jari-Matti Latvala took his first-ever Tarmac victory on the event’s final edition in 2014, before France’s WRC round returned to its traditional home in Corsica for the following year.
31. Indonesia
Rounding off today’s list is Rally Indonesia – another event that earned itself a sequel, but never became a main-stay on the WRC calendar.
First hosted in 1996, the rally marked the world championship’s first foray into Asia, with the drivers facing muddy stages through the Sumatran rainforest, tropical storms and extreme humidity.
Carlos Sainz took his first win for Ford on that event, leading home Piero Liatti and Juha Kankkunen, and he backed that result up by winning again on the series’ return in 1997.
A political crisis led to the event being axed for 1998, but Rally Indonesia was immortalized through its inclusion in Codemasters’ hit video game from that year: Colin McRae Rally.
